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Regional accents in the USA.
4

Regional accents in the USA.

Regional accents in the USA.

(OP)
I am a little puzzled by regional accents in the USA, how regional are they?

I have travelled around the US a bit and think I could tell if someone was from say New York and would certainly be able to tell the difference between a southern and northern accent, namely a Texan (ex girl friend) is hard to understand and someone from Mississippi is impossible!!! Where as “northern” accents are much easier to understand if you are English.

Having travelled around the mid west/ northwest to me there seems no difference over distances of Hundreds if not thousands of miles, is this true?

In England accents are very regional, with people from London and Birmingham speaking very differently but only about 100 miles apart. I live about half way between the two but speak very differently from people 15 miles up the road.

Even small towns literally only a few miles a part have different saying and pronunciations for the same thing or place, however this is slowly disappearing as people move around much more.

One final question, how does American (English) differ from Canadian (English)?

Would someone from say Detroit speak differently from someone from Windsor and if not say Toronto, would this be obvious to someone from one of the southern states?

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Canadians have a few differences from US, mainly having to do with pronunciation:

1.  "About" becomes "aboot" (Can)
2.  "Tomorrow" becomes "tomoorow"
3.  "Garage" becomes "garAge", with "A" as in "lAck"
4.  Sometimes "nasty" becomes "nahsty"

As for regional accents in the US, they are not nearly as distinctive (with exceptions) as those in UK; I usually divide them up something like this:

1.  South (Texas to Virginia, excepting Florida)
2.  Midatlantic (Maryland, central Pennsylvania)
3.  New York City
4.  Northern (Ohio, New York State, Pennsylvania, Florida)
5.  New England
6.  Northern Midwest (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Chicago)
7.  West (very generally west of the Mississippi)

I can pick out a few subregional accents within these, for example, Wisconsin is very distinctive, and eastern North Carolina is distinctive.  Each of the above has subregions, and the study of them or even of one of them is Ph.D. thesis material.

Regards,
William

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Even the army has its own accent.  I've noticed people pick it up over time in service.  Not quite Southern, not quite Texan.

I grew up in Wisconsin.  When I lived in California, people thought I was Canadian.  Even some Canadians thought I was Canadian.

Some Wisonsin-isms
"You betcha."
"Ya, sure." ("Sure" is pronmounced "shoor".
"Enna, hey" and "Ja, der, hey".  (especially in south Milwaukee.

City names only "Cheeseheads" can pronounce:
Oconomowoc
Wauwatosa
Weyauwega
Manitowoc
Two Rivers (Looks easy, right?  But it's "Trivers".)
Chequamegon

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

My favorite regional discussion includes John Kennedy saying "Cuber" (Cuba) and "Afriker" (Africa). That still amuses me.
jimbo

Buy a dictionary, keep it nearby and USE it. Webster's New World Dictionary of American English is recommended, and Webster's Collegiate Dictionary.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

the wisonsinisms above seem more like 'wegianisms.  They seem to pop up everywhere that large numbers of norwegians moved to - Minnesota, the upper peninsula of Michigan, parts of Montana, Wisconsin, etc.

You don't have to be from north of the cheddar curtain to pronounce Manitowoc.

I'd say that Texas accents are different from Alabama accents, and I'm from CA originally...

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Like with any kind of regional accent, the more familiar you are with the region in question, the better you are at distinguishing the accents.  There are plenty of Americans who can't tell one "British" accent from another, and probably some who can't tell English from Australian

I can't identify them upon hearing them myself, but I am reliably told that West Texas accents are different from East Texas accents are different from Dallas accents.  And I've met several people born and raised in San Antonio who sound like they're from Connecticut.

Bronx is different from Brooklyn is different from Staten Island (which isn't all that different from New Jersey) is different from Manhattan, which to my ears sounds as "neutral" as news broadcasterese (which is supposedly Ohioan).

Hebrew has only been a revived language for about a century, and yet Tel Aviv accents are different from Jerusalem accents, even among those who would otherwise be considered to be from the same ethnic group.  Though I wonder if Israel's relatively new commuter culture will change that and level it all out.

Somewhere out there is a documentary made sometime in the 1980s called "American Tongues" about dialects in the US.  Then there's American Tongues II which covers just one city (I think Boston, since the first one showed many different Boston accents, though it could have been New Orleans).

Ooh--here it is!
http://www.cnam.com/more_info/ameri3.html
can't find the sequel though.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines:  FAQ731-376

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

HgTX - I used to live in San Antonio and couldn't believe when I got there (I was from Iowa) that there were some "natives" who had enormous accents and some who had none.

ajack1 - as far as your question regarding American accents, many are very very subtle.  As a midwesterner, I feel that the national news personalities sound like "us", meaning I hear no accent at all.  But I can "hear" an accent from people from the following areas:

Wisconsin
Minnesota
Texas
Southerners in general (I can't distinguish Georgia from Mississippi for example)
Missouri
South and North Dakota

Now if you notice, my ears are very particular about the states around where I grew up.  I'm sure that HgTX can distinguish between West Texas and East Texas, but I could not.

Surprisingly, the biggest thing I noticed after moving to San Antonio was not the notorious "y'all" but the word insurance.  In the midwest we say - in SUR ance.

In Texas they say - IN surance.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

In the last year I've worked with three different people from Quebec.  They've all been surprised that I could identify their accents.  To me, they just sound like the folks on my mom's side of the family (eastern Ontario).

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Then there are the ethnicity-based accents, which seem fairly uniform throughout the US...

And the real mind boggler - the sexual-preference-based accent!  Tres fabulous.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

As a Texan, I can certainly tell the difference between an east Texas, South Texas, West Texas, and North Texas accent. But I think what ajack1 needs to understand is that Americans are extremely mobile. If I took a poll of my neighbors here in my little town in South East Texas, I would find people that grew up in the north in the midwest, in the south, and in the west, in Mexico, in Canada, in India, and other parts overseas, and very few that were natives of southeast texas. I suspect if ajack1 took the same poll he would find that most of his neighbors have live in that region their whole life, and had family in that area for centuries. Mobility is the main reason why accents in the US are quickly blurring.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

(OP)
Thanks for all the replies, very interesting.

I think sms makes a very good point about the English not travelling much, this is certainly true although is changing.

What is perhaps strange is England has many Indian residents and despite many still having an Indian edge to there accent they take on a very strong local accent, more so than someone who has moved from elsewhere in the UK.

I am also sure most accents are very subtle, so to me the first thing is you are American, even if you are actually Canadian !!!! Where as if you are from north Texas a southern Texan would sound very different. Many Americans think I am Australian.

What I do find odd is that to me at least a Texan sounds different someone from Louisiana or Mississippi fairly small distance, but there is no noticeable difference for me between someone from Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Montana, although I am sure there is.

Thanks again for the replies, keep them coming.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

What astonishes me about British regional accents and vernaculars is the short distances involved. For example, the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh are about 40 miles apart but the difference is astonishing. Perhaps the most extreme example is Manchester and Liverpool. The city centres are approximately 35 miles apart, but towns like Altrincham on the western edge of Manchester and St Helens on the eastern edge of Liverpool are less than 20 miles apart yet the difference in accent is as strong as ever.

The sharp differences come from the histories of the two cities. During the industrial revolution, many folk from the towns and villages around Manchester moved to the city for work, whereas during the same era Liverpool saw huge numbers of Irish immigrants coming in (although a Liverpool accent nowadays does not sound very Irish!).

A few observations (including some blatent stereotyping and generalising!):

1) The UK has a much higher population density than North America and the densest areas seem to have the highest regional variations (eg Birmingham, Manchseter-Liverpool, Leeds-Bradford-Sheffield, Edinburgh-Glasgow).

2) The differences are most acute between the "working class" populations (who haven't moved around much in the last couple of hundered years). There is a much greater similarity in accent between the middle class populations.

3) London and the south-east of England is the exception. So-called "Estuary English" (ie around the Thames estuary) is a kind of softened up version of the central London working-class "cockney" accent and has spread anything up to 100 miles away from central London. This is because over the last 150 years or so, the cost of living in London has largely exceeded the income of the working classes who have therefore been forced to move outward. The same thing has happend in other conurbations more recently, but effect is nowhere near as severe as seen in London.

This migration away from London effectively formed the basis of Ebenezer Howard's Garden City Movement of the early 20th century, a subject about which I could waffle on for hours (Welwyn Garden City is my home town and the second of the full-scale garden city projects).

M

--
Dr Michael F Platten

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I lived in Holland for about 3 years, and eventually could distinguish between people that live in the south, say from Amsterdam to the Belgian border, versus people in the north of Holland by the way they said certain words in Dutch. I never noticed that kind of differance among Germans, but then again I never spent more than a couple weeks at a time in Germany. But there are certainly differences between Swiss German and Austrian German and German German.

I had a hard time getting my ear around the local accent in Manchester, and Edinburgh was probably the worst on my travels to the UK, but not any worse than Main here in the US. I think a lot of the distinctiveness of a regional accent has to do with the use of specific slang and regional phrases rather than the ways words are pronounced. I sat in Sydney with tears of laughter rolling down my face listening to the news reader, and especially the sports reporter use phrases that to me were out of Alice in Wonderland.

By the way, the Louisiana dialect is a special case of American due to the large population of French that settled there way back when, and a tendancy like Australians to use a litnay of common phrases that are very local. The Cajun/Creol accent has as much French influence as anything, but it is very humorous to watch and listen to someone from Paris, converse in French with someone from New Orleans. I think the divide is much bigger than that between Americans and those from the UK.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

PBS recently aired a TV special entitled "Do You Speak American?" which was hosted by the Canadian emigre Robert MacNeil.

http://www.pbs.org/speak/about/guide/

There is an online poll

http://www.pbs.org/speak/speech/mapping/map.html

which allows viewers to rate six major accents (West, North, Midland, South, Mid-Atlantic, New England).

There are at least four areas of the map where minor subdialects (for example, Western Pennsylvanian or Pittsburghese)

http://itotd.com/index.alt?ArticleID=307

http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Port/9832/pittsburgh.html

are spoken.

There are so many sub-subdialects that some New York City residents claim that they can locate the public school any native attended to within a ten-city-block square simply by listening to his accent for ten minutes.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

weh3,
  I agree with your post with the exception of not including Florida.  I have lived in various parts of the sunshine state for twenty years, and native Floridians outside of the population centers, as few as there are, do have a southern accent.  While not quite as strong as those from Alabama or Georgia, it is definitely there.

  After having lived in San Antonio for 6 years, I can recognize a Texas accent,  though those from west TX are the only ones that truely stand out to me.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I lived in FL from the time I was 5 till I was 25.  Hillbilly or Redneck sounds the same, it doesn't matter if you are in the Carolinas, New Jersey or elsewhere.

When I was little I use to spend my summers at my uncle's house/farm in NC.  When I returned to FL I caught myself saying such things as "crick" instead of "creek", and "pop" instead of "soda".

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

The reqions in the USA are slowly changing with influx of hispanics, asians, europeans, etc. Last year I met a couple from Germany (I'm in So Calif). They have been here before several years ago. They said they now have a terrible time understanding the English here in Calif and Florida (where they have a vacation home). They say they can here the change in the way we speak. Interesting.

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

what's an accent??

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I lived in western Pennsylvania until the age of 14, then in Illinois until the age of 24, and have lived in Wisconsin for 18 years.  I have never had a lot of trouble adjusting to the dialects; I think western Pennsylvania is more a part of the Midwest than the East Coast.  Although, when I moved to Illinois, I had to call the cellar a "basement", and I had to call "pop" soda.
Also, my grandparents in Pennsylvania had some strange words for things.  For example, they called the couch a "davenport."

DaveAtkins

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

3
Hawaii has a seperate sub dialect, pidgin, more then an accent because about 10 or 20% of the words are different.

On the mainland I lived in two states, Missouri and New York.

Missouri has three dialects, ozark, St louis and the rest of the state. Somebody raised in the ozarks is easily recognizable in St louis or Kansas City.

New york, drive from Albany to the city and there is an enormous accent change.

But between up state New york and Seatle there is not that big an accent diffenece, a distance of what,, 3 thousand miles.

HAving said that there are some little towns in the upper midwest where the people sound like they just got off the boat from sweden or norway.



I like turbines

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Maps about accents, in the USA and the UK.






RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I think regional accents in the U.S. have been greatly diluted from the time period of my experience (30 yrs).

I imagine it has to do with the fact that people tend to relocate much more now than ever.

I kinda miss the diversity.  I grew up in Washington D.C. and now live in Delaware.  I have relatives in Pittsburgh, PA.  I meet people from Pittsburgh today, and say "you can't be from Pittsburgh...you don't have the accent".

I remember traveling south as a child and barely understanding some people when they speak.  I recently was in Georgia for a week and the accent was mild.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Mililani,
Great maps! thanks.
But, did havoc on my window size...

Chris
Sr. Mechanical Designer, CAD
SolidWorks 05 SP1.1 / PDMWorks 05
ctopher's home site

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Yup, havoc is a good word... it's posted in the Process TGML notes to not post anything wider than 400 pixels.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers."
Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, 1943.
Have you read FAQ731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I think it is interesting that, in my experience, people in Kentucky and Tennessee have more of a "southern" accent than people in Georgia and Alabama.

DaveAtkins

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Actually, GA and AL have more of the "Southern" accent.  What you hear East TN and KY is Appalachian (sometimes known as hillbilly)

The more rural the area is, the stronger and more diverse the accents will be.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Regarding the posting of images ... see FAQ559-1100


Making the best use of this Forum.  FAQ559-716
How to get answers to your SW questions.  FAQ559-1091
Helpful SW websites every user should be aware of.  FAQ559-520

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

TerryScan--it may not just be that people move.  I suspect it's also that they have national TV, radio, movies, etc. that spread a "generic" accent.  I was dismayed when I came to Texas at how few of the DJs and TV announcers spoke like Texans--even truck ads aimed specifically at Texas are done with the broadcasterese Ohio-type accent.

You'd think kids would pick up more of their accent from the people around them than from what they hear coming out of a speaker but ya never know.

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines:  FAQ731-376

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Part of the reason GA and other states are seeing accent dilution is the increasing number of 'northerners' being brought in to do jobs the locals can't seem to handle.

TICK - I'm also from Wisconsin, enna hey, and we're trying to get "You Betcha" intergrated into the local Georgia language....  just another challenge for us Yankees...

Racing and bullfighting are the only real sports...everything else is just a game.
Bob

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

Quote (= "sprintcar"):

TICK - I'm also from Wisconsin, enna hey, and we're trying to get "You Betcha" intergrated into the local Georgia language....  just another challenge for us Yankees...
And I've been working hard to not let them call me (a former Wisconsinite) a Yankee.  I'm a midwesterner or northerner.  I AM NOT a Yankee (leave that for those coming from Connecticut).

There is probably a big difference in the accents heard around Atlanta than maybe Macon, Georgia.  I know there's a big one in North Carolina between Raleigh (also Chapel Hill and Durham) and Rocky Mount or Hickory.  Around the coastal areas, especially Ocracoke Islands, there are accents that are almost impossible to understand.  

[Trying to get the correct spelling of Ocracoke, I found this web site of how people speak.]
http://www.ku.edu/~idea/northamerica/usa/northcarolina/northcarolina.htm

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

To people on the other side of the Atlantic, even someone from Georgia is a Yankee.  Relativistic yankeeism...

Hg

Eng-Tips guidelines:  FAQ731-376

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

ok, i know i'm johnny-come-lately in this, but i gotta respond to sms:

Germany has a HUUUGE number of regional dialects, never mind accents.  When we talk about the differences between, say Plattdeutsch ("flat german" in the north) and Bayrisch (Bavarian) it's litterally comparing two distinct languages, not just different pronounciations or a few differing words.  We all have to learn Hochdeutsch ("High German", which incidentally is basically the Hanover dialect) so that we can communicate with each other. The younger generation mostly speaks high german, but the older generation often speaks mostly dialect. A Bavarian and a North German litterally don't understand each other when both are speaking in dialect.

And dialects differ within themselves, too. My parents grew up about 45 km apart, and the local dialects differ to the extent that the word "to speak" is "snakken" in one and "koern" in the other.

All this is not to say that there are not regional accents - of course there are. Regional accents tend to be grouped along the same lines as the dialects, and the dialects color the local high german, too.

and why, pray tell? basically, because Germany has historically only existed as a unified national entity for the last century and a half - before that, Germany was lots of independant principalities, imperial cities, dukedoms, electorships, earldoms, baronies, dioceses, the odd kingdom here and there - and travel between the different "nations" wasn't all that common.

ok, enough ranting on that. hope that cleared something up for somebody.

oh, just fyi: i'm german, was born in germany, and speak fluent german, so i do actually know what i'm talking about, even if i do call the South home now, y'all :)

cheers,
rad
"Remember, if you leave it to the last minute, it'll only take a minute"

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I am originally from Mississippi, and there is a distinct difference between Texas and most other areas nearby (Alabama, Florida, Louisiana). I can usually spot a Texas accent almost immediately. However, there is a huge separation of accents when you get into southeast Louisiana (where I live now, in the heart of New Orleans). I would suggest that the variation of accents in all other states is not nearly as diverse as the accents you get in Louisiana. You run the range from standard deep south (northern Louisiana), to Cajun French (rural south and southeastern Louisiana) to some sort of odd accent resembling more of a Brooklyn sound than anything else (parts of Metro New Orleans and some surrounding areas). The people that speak this way are called Yat's (which is a contraction of "Where ya at?", which means how are you doing, but is prounounced like "Where Yat".) I've lived here in New Orleans for about 7 years now, and am beginning to differentiate between parts of the city based on accent. I can fully understand how the language in larger cities is an identifier to the neighborhood, because I'm seeing it here, and N.O. is only a fraction of the size of those larger cities.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I guess I agree with 'sqdjld' and should use the 'midwesterner' term, but I've found that most around here can't get use those big words (although 'damnyankee' seems to be easy enough for them)

Seems to be a lot of us 'former cheeseheads' that moved south....

RE: Dialects - with all the outsourcing to India, (try calling AOL tech support) I found that they have over 200 different dialects in the country. That must pose a real communications issue at those "Hotel and Quick Mart Owners" conventions...

Racing and bullfighting are the only real sports...everything else is just a game.
Bob

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I'm from St. Louis, Missouri (originally).  When I went to college in Missouri in the 70's, the other students from other parts of Missouri could immediately tell those of us from St.Louis.  I'm sure TV is playing a big part in melding us into one big boring plain vanilla country though.

K2ofKeyLargo

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

1. In the United States, we spend more time watching TV and listening to the radio than we do listening to persons who are in the same room with us, so persons in Windsor, Ontario and persons in Detroit would speak more like each other than like those from other parts of their respective countries, because persons in cities near each other receive the same TV and radio stations.

One major exception is job titles that are decided by the government: Certified Public Accountant vs Chartered Accountant, Crown Attorney vs Prosecutor or District Attorney, etc.

2. The map of the U.S. that was posted does not reflect that parts of Florida now have New York City, Cuban, or other Hispanic accents, not Southern U.S. accents.

RE: Regional accents in the USA.

I don't have an accent....everyone else has!

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